The popular soccer anime BLUE LOCK returns, this time to the big screen, in a feature-length episode covering the events of our introduction to BLUE LOCK from Nagi’s point of view. This mix of recap and new content provides a new look at Nagi’s journey leading up to BLUE LOCK and his actions once he started to compete. Check out the synopsis and trailer below and then let’s dive into the film.

“That’s a hassle.” That was second-year high schooler Nagi Seishiro’s favorite phrase as he lived his dull life. Until Mikage Reo, a classmate who dreamed of winning the World Cup, discovered Nagi’s hidden skill, inspiring him to play soccer and share his outstanding talent. One day, he receives an invitation to the mysterious BLUE LOCK Project. What awaits him there is an encounter with the finest strikers assembled from across the country. Nagi’s dream of becoming the best, alongside Reo, will take this prodigy to a world he’s never known.  A prodigy can only be shaped when someone discovers him….now, striker Nagi Seishiro’s incredible talent and persona will set the soccer world ablaze.

Review

BLUE LOCK is an interesting new anime covering the world of soccer. The series covers a boot camp of sorts, code-named Blue Lock, that intends to create the best striker Japan has ever seen. In a series of grueling training and games, members are slowly widdled down to a final team that will compete with pros in order to find the best players to represent their country. In EPISODE NAGI, we revisit the events of season one from the point of view of Seishiro Nagi.

Nagi is the easily bored type with little interest in anything athletic. Yet a classmate of his finds he has amazing reflexes and would be a perfect addition to the soccer team. BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- explores the relationship between Nagi and his classmate Reo Mikage. Eventually, Reo convinces him to go to BLUE LOCK with him and the rest his history. The film does a lot of recapping in the sense that much of what you see was already seen previously, except not from Isagi’s point of view this time.

Peppered into the film are several new aspects of Nagi’s character journey, his relationship with Mikage, and what fuels his competitive nature, even as a lazy and unmotivated person in general. At the end, we see a new scene that fills a gap between where we ended in season 1 and where we will likely be continuing from when season 2 lands. As anime films go BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- is fun to see from another point of view and with the summer Olympic games in Paris just a month away, it is the perfect time to pickup a sports anime and get excited for the upcoming competition.

North American Theatrical Release Date: June 28, 2024 only in theaters with both Japanese with English subtitles and English dub versions. You can stream the first season of the anime over on Crunchyroll.

©Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Kota Sannomiya, Yusuke Nomura, KODANSHA/BLUE LOCK MOVIE Production Committee.